2003-12-17

B. E.*

After politicians and government workers, journalists have the &hittie&t jobs in the world.

The amount of B.E. thrown at the American public by the PR guys of the U.S. President Bush and the Pentagon is unbelievable. What is even more unbelievable is the total abandon with which news agencies and the rest of the media lap it all up. During the war in Iraq, a female soldier named Jessica Lynch was taken prisoner after an ambush and treated by Iraqi doctors for her injuries at a hospital. An Iraqi informed a US patrol and from then on it was all Hollywood. Lynch, who was part of logistics, was supposed to have fought bravely before suffering a bullet wound. To discredit the Iraqis, the US military said Lynch was raped. Though U.S. soldiers met no hostility at the hospital, the video released by the Pentagon shows shots being fired. After George W. Bush made a secret visit to Baghdad, “excited aides” to the President recounted how a BA pilot almost blew the cover on the secret visit. After landing in Baghdad, a smiling President holding was put among smiling soldiers and photographed. The turkey-laden platter that Bush was holding was actually a decoration piece put there by the military contractor (Kellog, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton). The news related to the capture of Saddam Hussein is also full of spin and B.E.; everything about what Bush said, what Saddam said, or what Saddam’s captors said to him. Because journalists rely on their fertile imagination to add some B.E. on their own, different news organizations have different versions of the same B.E. Sheeesh!